Catering temp references — food hygiene, kitchen conduct and service performance

What catering temp references should cover

Catering employment references should address food hygiene awareness and food safety standards compliance, conduct in a professional kitchen environment, performance under service pressure and during peak periods, knife skills and kitchen equipment competency where relevant, conduct with front of house staff and service colleagues, personal hygiene and presentation standards, any food hygiene incidents or enforcement actions during their employment, and whether the referee would have any concerns about the candidate working in a professional catering environment again. A reference that asks about general attendance and performance provides almost no useful information for a kitchen placement decision.

Food hygiene compliance in catering references

Catering temp workers placed in commercial kitchens — restaurants, hotels, events catering, contract catering — are responsible for food safety in environments subject to Environmental Health inspection. A candidate with a poor food hygiene record places the client kitchen at risk of enforcement action. References for catering roles should specifically address food hygiene compliance, any food safety incidents and adherence to HACCP principles. RefAssure catering templates include food hygiene-specific questions as standard alongside general kitchen performance fields.

For catering agencies placing workers across different kitchen environments — fine dining restaurants with specific culinary standards, contract catering with high-volume production requirements, events catering with off-site cooking challenges — templates can be configured for each environment type. From 99p per reference with no subscription.